This was the first public hearing held after the city's planning commission approved the construction of a single-story surgery center and a three-story parking facility with 216 stalls, to join the two medical buildings and two-story underground parking structure at the Palo Alto Foundation's campus at 3200 Kearney St.

The ambulatory surgery center is a place where people can have same-day procedures performed, said David Jury, Palo Alto Medical Foundation's support services and facilities development vice president.

"They are limited with the degree and complexity of the surgery, but you don't have the cost pressure of needing to have beds, an emergency room or a full kitchen," Jury said. "So you can deliver appropriate care in the appropriate place and it costs less than going to the hospital."

Jury said the proposal for the surgery center came as a response to patient's desires, as well as changes in health care policies and laws. He cited President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act as part of an effort to bring the price of private medicine down in order to make medical care more affordable. He added the Palo Alto Medical Foundation is "delighted" the council approved the amendment to the current facility structure.

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"We will be submitting building permits today or tomorrow É and we are going to ask the city to start examining our plans, which will take a month or two, then we are ready to start building," Jury said.

Construction would most likely take "a little in excess of a year," he said, once the permits and plans are approved by city staff.

The campus consists of two medical buildings, one two-story building and a three-story building, as well as 223 underground parking spaces and 394 surface parking spaces, according to city staff reports. The new surgery center and parking structure would connect to the rest of the facilities via a new traffic circle, and a patient drop-off area would link to this circle outside the main entrance.

It will also contain four operating rooms, two endoscopy rooms and 22 pre-operation and recovery rooms, according to the floor plan for the new center.

Additionally, a plaza with seating would connect the buildings to the sidewalk by a walkway that would provide a view of a future public art piece that will be installed at the corner of Stevenson Boulevard and Paseo Padre Parkway the Unity Rings sculpture as well as the hills to the east.

In order to address concerns that the parking structure to be located on a major intersection would decrease the aesthetic of the area, the foundation designed it to look like a medical office building to conceal its function as a garage, according to the staff report.

Council members welcomed these solutions to blend the facility in with the rest of the area.

"I know Palo Alto Medical has worked really hard with staff to make the building and parking attractive," Vice Mayor Anu Natarajan said. "One thing we are looking into is gateways into the city; this site is one of those gateways É and I would encourage the site people to look into art displays" that complement the area.

Mayor Bill Harrison echoed Natarjan's sentiments, saying Washington Hospital built fountains when they constructed their facility, and that he would like to see Palo Alto Medical Foundation provide some sort of artwork as well.

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